America Finally Stops Being Israel's Bitch

Don't worry; it's just temporary.  When the new Sheriff takes over next month, America will bend over for Israel once again.

Today the U.N. Security Council issued one of its periodic condemnations of Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, for being in violation of International Law.  As always, the Security Council's vote was 14 to 0.  Only, this time: 

The United States did NOT veto the resolution. For a brief moment, the Israeli government is actually being held accountable for overrunning Palestinian territory with gazillions of settlers.

The Israeli government  — together with their chickenhawk allies in the U.S.  — is having a massive tantrum and panty-twist.  How's this for a drinking game:  Every time another rightwing spewbag says “apologizing for America,” knock back another shot of your favorite poison. 

However, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said that in 1982, then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan declared that “Washington will not support the use of any additional land for the purpose of settlements.”

And Secretary of State John Kerry said the purpose of today's vote was “to preserve the possibility of the two-state solution.”

We'll see how long this brief period of sanity will last.

Electoral College Rejects Trump AND Clinton — Selects John Kasich for President

Nah.  But that nightmare scenario — and some that are even sicker and scarier — could actually happen.

If  the Electoral College rejects Trump:

“The election goes to Congress. They can only choose from the top three in the electoral race, so who the electors vote for matters a great deal. If Kasich or Pence is in the top three it could take several ballots to determine a winner.”

With all the fear and dread over what the Electoral College might or might not do, why don't we  get rid of this albatross once and for all, and just go with the popular vote?  Almost six weeks after the most polarizing contentious emotionally-draining election in decades, we're still freaking ourselves out with all these bizarre “Oh My God, what if ______” speculations.

If we went only by the popular vote, White House candidates would have to suck up to everybody, not just swing state voters.  Under our current system, residents of a few large Battleground states get slathered with all the attention.  If you live in a small state and/or a state that's solidly red or blue, your vote is taken for granted.

Supposedly, tens of millions of newly registered Hispanic voters were going to guarantee the White House for the Democrats this year.  Trouble is, most of these newly registered voters were in California (blue no matter what), Texas and Arizona (both red come hell or high water).

Best of all:  If we didn't have the Electoral College, Republican strategists at the state level would no longer have any incentive to tilt the allocation of Electoral votes into a Heads the Republican wins, Tails the Democrat loses fiasco.

So far eleven states (including Washington) have signed the National Popular Vote compact to switch to a popular vote.  This would have to be signed by enough states to add up to a majority of electoral votes, in order for this law to take effect.  Think the public will go for it?

For whatever it's worth, an online poll (admittedly un-scientific) in our local newspaper shows a majority being in favor of switching to the popular vote:

Electoral College  43.83%  (263 votes)  
 

Popular vote  50%  (300 votes)  
 

Undecided  6.17%  (37 votes)  
 

 

Total Votes: 600

A Foreign Government Meddling in the U.S. Election Process??? Shocking!!!

Like most people, I don't like the fact that Trump got elected with the help of Vladimir Putin.  But the people who are screaming the loudest about this are pretty much the same ones who think it's AOK for the United States to be hand-picking the leaders (and eliminating the ones who don't cooperate) of other countries.  We've been doing this since at least the early 1950s (e.g. Guatemala, Iran), if not before.

Or as this columnist puts it:

“Now that the election is over, America is getting a little taste of the paranoia other nations know. And it isn't pleasant...And the suspicion that a foreign power was rooting for and acting on behalf of the candidate you opposed strikes not just at your sense of the election's fairness and integrity, but encourages you to indulge in the fantasy that Trump's supporters are formally cooperating in something wicked and seditious.”

More recent examples of American meddling include:

“The American government supported information campaigns as part of the color revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine. Iraqis were probably surprised when U.S. media outlets informed them that figures like Ahmed Chalabi represented their national hopes during the Iraq War.”

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, will American politicians start having second thoughts about our own practice of choosing other countries' leaders?  [just a rhetorical question]

Stop The Recount! You Lost! Get The Fuck Over It! Move On! Die!!!

I'm referring of course to North Carolina's Far Right Biblehumping corporate-dicksucking governor, Pat McCrory.  It was a close election, but McCrory's opponent — North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper — has defeated McCrory by more than 10,000 votes.  10,000 votes is supposed to be the legal cutoff point, above which the vote is “official,” i.e. no recounting of the votes.

But McCrory and the rest of North Carolina's Republican Mafia are insisting that 90,000 votes in Durham County are “suspicious” (i.e. too many Nigras and poor people and librul college students must have slipped through the Voter Suppression machine) and need to be recounted.

North Carolina has had a Far Right legislature for a long time, but until four years ago, their Democratic governor would routinely veto the avalanches of teabagger wetdream legislation that came pouring in.  That all changed four years ago when Pat McCrory got elected.

McCrory is most infamous for signing North Carolina's “Eek!  It's a Homosexual!  Keep them perverts out of the bathroom!” bill.  (Governor-Elect Roy Cooper is the state attorney general who refused to defend the state's anti-LGBT law in federal courts, much to the chagrin of North Carolina's Biblehumping community.)

But McCrory is also one of the fossil fuel industry's busiest skankiest prostitutes.  For just one example:  Fracking companies are not required to disclose the chemicals used in the fracking process — chemicals that are seeping into people's water supply.  But that wasn't enough.  McCrory signed a law making it a felony for anyone to publicly reveal which chemicals are used in the fracking process.  When a fossil fuel lobbyist says “Suck my dick!” Pat McCrory answers “How hard, Sir!?!?  Should I spit or swallow, Sir?!?!”

Bill Maher nailed it 3 years ago with this description of Pat McCrory's governorship:

“North Carolina is going apeshit in a way no state ever has.  Take every crazy angry idea your drunk right-wing uncle mumbles at Thanksgiving, turn it into a law, and that’s North Carolina today.”

Thank God he's been voted out.  Governor-Elect Roy Cooper, you've got a huuuge mess to clean up.  Pat McCrory, fuck off and die!  And the slower the better.



UPDATE:  The corpse that died almost four weeks ago has finally admitted he's dead.  Pat McCrory has just announced:

“Despite continued questions that should be answered regarding the voting process, I personally believe that the majority of our citizens have spoken and we now should everything we can to support the 75th governor of North Carolina — Roy Cooper.”

Ya think???

Fidel Castro: 1926 - 2016

About fifteen years ago, I read an anecdote about Fidel Castro's early life.  I have no idea whether the story is true or not; nothing turned up on any of the web searches I did.  Anyway, the story went like this:

One day during elementary school, Fidel Castro got into an argument with the school bully.  The bully challenged him to a fight after school.  Fidel took him up on the challenge.  The bully trounced Castro; beat the living shit out of him.  The next day, Castro walked up to the bully and challenged him to a rematch.  The bully again pounded the fuck out of Fidel Castro.

This exact same scenario happened again and again, day after day, month after month.  Castro never won any of these fights; got his ass kicked every time.  But by the end of the school year, the bully was scared shitless of him.

Happy Thanksgiving from William S. Burroughs

For awhile, back in the Aughts, I was posting William Burroughs' Thanksgiving Prayer every year.  Now that the American People have spoken, and told us to turn the clock back a few decades (or centuries), I think William Burroughs' warm and fuzzy Thanksgiving Prayer is more appropriate than ever.

Enjoy.

President Obama should APPOINT Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here's How.

I'm not interested in grousing over the lost election, or pointing fingers over whose fault it was.

But more far-reaching than identity politics, party loyalty, who's worse, Hillary or Trump, yada yada, the biggest stake in the 2016 election was the future of the Supreme Court.  1992's "It's the economy, Stupid!" morphed into "It's the Supreme Court, Stupid!"

Bitch McConnell is now being praised for his shrewdness in not even allowing an up or down vote on Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court.  But maybe McConnell's sleazebaggery has backfired.  According to the Washington Post's interpretation of the appointments clause of the Constitution:

“The president 'shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint . . . Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States.' Note that the president has two powers: the power to 'nominate' and the separate power to 'appoint.'  In between the nomination and the appointment, the president must seek the 'Advice and Consent of the Senate.' What does that mean, and what happens when the Senate does nothing? [bold/italics added]

In most respects, the meaning of the 'Advice and Consent' clause is obvious. The Senate can always grant or withhold consent by voting on the nominee. The narrower question, starkly presented by the Garland nomination, is what to make of things when the Senate simply fails to perform its constitutional duty.”

Or as The Rude Pundit said:   “It's like when a president refuses to act on a bill within ten days while Congress is in session. It becomes a law, no?”

I don't claim to have any sort of legal expertise, but I say go for it.

Leon Russell

Leon Russell has died at the age of 74.

Aside from having a piano and vocal style totally unlike anyone else's, he wrote This Masquerade (more famously performed by George Benson) and Delta Lady (better known by Joe Cocker).

Here are some YouTube links to some of Leon Russell's music.

R.I.P. 

Any Silver Linings Here?

Looking for a silver lining in last night's Bizarro World travesty is sort of like losing your house, being relegated to a cardboard box and then saying “Hey, cool!  Now I won't have to deal with those neighborhood kids walking across my lawn any more.”

But in the long run — I know, we'll all be dead in the long run — there was one encouraging statistic in yesterday's election.  Voters in the 18 to 25 age bracket voted Democrat in almost every state.  The only red states were Kentucky, West Virginia, North Dakota, Idaho and Wyoming.

So, that's the future; if we can live long enough to enjoy it.

“If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.”

Contrary to Mark Twain's famous quotation, voting apparently DOES make a difference, and they're trying desperately NOT to let us do it:

This is a voters' waiting line in North Carolina after early voting was eliminated.